Almost ready to join the extension thread but can you critique this layout for me first!

[bobkate]

I have been waiting and watching avidly lurking, gleaning tips along the way and am hoping my builder will not be a teamrick sort ( sorry teamrick ).
We are having a ground floor extension which I'm fairly okay with layout wise. That's sorted....it's the first floor extension which is niggling me.
We are in a typical 1930s detached with bathroom at the front, 2 doubles and a box room. We're pushing out over the top of the rear extension and the only way we can access this is through the box room.
We are also wanting to make sure we have scope to put a stair case into the loft in the future so we're hopeful that we can fit those into the box room space when we get another pot of money ( that's not likely to be any time soon but I can but hope ).

So photo one is as we are at the moment except the current windows are along the back wall not on the sides of the house. We're wanting to re use the windows in the extension ( they are quite new and trying to keep the budget on a tight leash ).

Photo 2 is how I think I can work the new master bedroom and en suite. The current box room window will have obscured glass put in so we can reuse that on the en suite side. We thought about re using it in the box room but that would leave not much usable space around it so we'll get a new smaller window for there.

Does that look like a usable/workable space for an en suite/large double? I was thinking that we don't really need a door to the en suite - just the opening. Is that a no no or okay? DH would be banished to the family bathroom for a poo, and my youngest would never be allowed in there either

We've had planning granted, but need construction drawings drawn up and I feel I need to have a definite plan before he comes to measure up on Wednesday.

On a side note, I had no idea how long and how complicated this would be and we haven't even started the build yet. We have never done any alteration work on anywhere we've lived so this is a bit straight in at the deep end for us really.

So any feedback would be gratefully received. Or if there's anything glaringly obvious that I've overlooked/got wrong please point that out!

Close coupled.....

I'm so sorry bubbles I am now totally confused!!!
Are you saying leave the window at the rear of the house in the 'balanced' postion?
But then the en suite needs to be at least 2 metres wide by the window so would have to dog leg in before we get to the door.
Oh I'm getting myself in a right cufuffle

Probably doesn't help that I'm chucking in sketches every 5 minutes.

Is it possible to move your bedroom window over to the left so it's more central on the back of the house? It would mean it not being central on the bedroom wall internally but that feels like less of a big deal to me. Then you can have your an suite window on the side with glass door.

It's really hard to judge without knowing how old the kids are/ what the timescale for loft is, but if they're going to want showers soon and the loft is going to be a while I wouldn't put the best shower in the house in the ensuite.
Unless the shower over bath is good enough to be the family shower, or you're happy with children and guests traipsing through your bedroom to have a shower, I'd try and put a decent shower elsewhere.
Would the layout of current bathroom and stairs let you carve off a bit of landing to add a really good shower cubicle to the family bathroom?

Statistically so just one window on the rear of the house?

Still - no, sadly the bathroom is a tight old squeeze as it is, as is the landing. The kids are still quite young and the bath/shower has been good enough for the last 7 years for us and the occasional guest we've had, so that doesn't worry me. I'm not a bath person at all so a lovely standalone shower is really what I'd like.
If we had an infinite pot of cash I would probably knock various walls down upstairs as well and re distribute some of the space more fairly, but we are pushing budget limits ( without dipping into contingency ).

By the way, I do totally understand why you'd say about not putting the best shower in the en suite but I can't fit a separate shower in the family bathroom so this is the only option really.

uhm... with that little space would you not consider a sliding door on the bathroom? A friend of mine had a custom made one, it looked like a mirror and you absolutely couldn't tell there it was an actual door.
It's on my wishlist for our unsuite to save space in the bedroom.